General Links of Interest

Monday, February 22, 2010

"Broken Government"

George calls this one perfectly. When Republicans are having trouble with the reform of something that the Democrats are blocking, the MSM calls that "good government". Reverse it and it is "broken government". Remember that when the Democrats filibustered an unprecedented 10 Bush judicial appointments, the threat of filibuster was a sacred part of the Senate, not to be touched by any "nuclear option". There were kudos to the "moderate RINO" John McCain and his "gang of 14" in heading off this "crisis".

Now? Oh, now the Democrats can talk of using reconciliation to force the health care bill through (an example of "going nuclear" to get around the filibuster) and the MSM is just FINE with that!

TERRY MORAN, HOST: There's a sense that something is broken in Washington summed up this week by Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) who announced his retirement. I think it's fair to say he's leaving in disgust. Here's what he had to say.

SENATOR EVAN BAYH, (D-IND.): I have had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship, and not enough progress. Too much narrow ideology, and not enough practical problem solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the people's business is not getting done.

MORAN: Is he right, George?

GEORGE WILL: Well, it's hard to take a lecture on bipartisanship from a man who voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice Roberts, the confirmation of Justice Alito, the confirmation of Attorney General Ashcroft, the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State. Far from being a rebel against his Party's lockstep movement, Mr. Bayh voted for the Detroit bailout, for the stimulus, for the public option in the healthcare bill. I don't know quite what his complaint is, but, Terry, with metronomic regularity, we go through these moments in Washington where we complain about the government being broken. These moments have one thing in common: The Left is having trouble enacting its agenda. No one when George W. Bush had trouble reforming Social Security said, "Oh, that's terrible - the government's broken."